Agility

I was able to get some video of our lesson last week. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but it is coming along and we are well on our way. Before this lesson I had started leaning towards a 2o2o contact for our dogwalk. After trying both running and 2o2o I found that Reese really did remember the 2o2o quite well for having not done it much for the last few years and we had so many issues with the running contact.

After our last lesson and all the handling we did I realized what it will really be like to run a course, and I was leaning even more towards a 2o2o. I am going to have so much to think about that I just may want a second to collect my thoughts, my breath, and get my legs underneathe me before I continue on the course. There is so much that I will be thinking about when we start trialing that at this point the running contact would be one more thing to worry about. Life is full of stress, I don't need any more right now.

I discussed this with my trainer and she thought it made sense. So we worked on the dogwalk for a bit. Reese would do a nice 2o2o on one end. Then I would run the whole thing and she did a great running dogwalk off of it, with a hoop on the end. I said to my trainer, "I see that and then I think maybe I should do the running contact." Then my trainer said it. "Well yes, but she will be going twice as fast as that when she really runs it." Me, eyes wide open, "hmmm, wow!"

Then out came the terrier. A little itty bitty white Jack Russell. Thanks Andy and Crackers for helping me. Crackers was going to show me what a real running contact is like. He may be small but he can haul his little patutty booty over that dogwalk at lightning speed. So Andy reved him up and let him go. I got a head start and I started at the dogwalk, (which would never happen in a trial) I'd still be getting to it when Reese was on it.

Then we ran. Crackers up and over and me pumping my legs and arms as fast as they could go. I think we were about even at the end except for one small detail. Crackers was ready for the next obstacle, but me, I was still going trying to slow down before I hit the wall.

Yep, and then you have to run the rest of the course. So after that experience and realizing that Reese would be even faster....yeah, maybe not this time. I think I made the right decision for us.

So here is a little video of a couple sequences we did.